Barbe Chardon is one of the women who studied miniature painting with Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin in Paris. Her signed works are exceedingly rare. In this child portrait, the artist has worked in accordance with her teacher’s
invention, the cabinet miniature, en grande miniature, a combination
of miniature and watercolour/gouache on paper, where, as in this
work, the face is often painted on an inset ivory panel.